I want to erase everything on my external hard drive. How do I do this?
If you aren't sure what you're doing, bring it to a service tech or you may render that external hard drive completely useless:
Before you start cleaning make sure you back everything up onto another disk. If you are giving your computer away check with the person or organization to see if they plan on cleaning your hard drive for you. However, the best thing to do is to clean it yourself.
Download a hard drive cleaning program or go to a computer store that sells computer software and buy the program. This is the safest way to make sure the hard drive is all wiped clean. Running the software program over writes all the data on your drive, making the hard drive impossible for anyone to read. The software works by over writing the drive many times.
Make sure you give yourself plenty of time in wiping your hard drive clean because if you have a lot of stuff it will take longer to clean.
Once your running your program and the box comes up to erase your hard drive don't forget that this process is irreversible. You will now type in the word format drive letter and hit confirm that you want to erase everything on your computer.
Installing a new external hard drive if you are not getting rid of your computer, is another option you have. You still go about erasing the old drive because you're getting rid of your hard drive. Install the new one.
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